Each module in Designing Cities will focus on a different aspect of city design including: How Today’s City Evolved; The Ideas That Shape Cities; Tools for Designing Cities; Making Cities Sustainable; Cities in the Information Age; Preserving Older Cities; Designing New Cities, Districts and Neighborhoods; The Challenges of Informal Cities and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods; and Visionary Cities. Materials will be presented by the instructors and guest faculty from PennDesign through a series of five or more lessons per module, each typically 10-12 minutes long.
The first lesson in each module will be a roundtable discussion among professors Stefan Al, Jonathan Barnett, and Gary Hack introducing the big issues associated with the subject. Each succeeding module will be a self-contained illustrated presentation of a set of ideas and images. There will be a list of suggested readings for those who wish to follow up on the ideas in each module.
Everyone enrolled in Designing Cities will be expected to complete 3 assignments. These will be posted on the course site and they will be in the form of peer assessments. There will be a great deal to be learned from the ideas participants submit, reflecting cities of all sizes and circumstances across the globe so once you submit your assignment, you'll be able to see what your peers have done.

From the lesson

The Challenges of Informal Cities and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

Much of our discussion to this point in Designing Cities has focused on more developed cities in Europe, North America and Asia. But over the next several decades, the rapidly multiplying cities of Latin America, Africa and South Asia will represent a large fraction of the World’s urbanization. As David Gouverneur describes in his module, much of the urbanization will occur as informal settlements that need to be provided with facilities and services later. These are a different kind of challenge for urban designers, and interesting models are emerging in Latin American Cities. Two modules are devoted to essential techniques for upgrading the quality of such settlements. The first focuses on adjustments to land tenure, to provide security for informal settlements, and to allow a better designed transition from rural to urban development. The second looks at how services and infrastructure can be inserted into ongoing living informal settlements. The approach is that of surgical urban design. Finally we address the issue of what role urban design can play in combating poverty and urban deterioration. We look at examples of upgrading efforts that elevate both the spirit and economic prospects of areas of cities. We see that design is much more than a cosmetic exercise of producing beautiful cities